WE really are in the throes of winter and the prolonged cold spell has added to the sprat problem.

No boats have been able to launch, due to the high winds.

To be honest, we’re just into a typical British winter and February has never been a great month in the angler’s calendar.

The new beaches at Holland saw a few anglers fishing at the weekend.

Some fish were caught, mainly small whiting, rockling and flounders.

Once again, Clacton seafront is seeing the odd codling, but mostly small whiting.

The pier has only seen a handful of anglers this week, but there have been one or two codling caught.

Walton Sea Angling Club fished their first beach match of the year and 13 anglers turned up on a cold, wintry night with snow falling.

Luckily, it was a calm night, making for more comfortable fishing conditions.

They fished the match on the newly-opened beaches at Holland.

The fishing was once again extremely difficult, but ten out of the 13 competitors did weigh in.

In first place was Dave Botterill, with a whiting and rockling for 8.5oz.

Second place went to Vic Pearce, also with a whiting and a rockling for 7oz, and third place went to Terry Quartermaine, with two rockling for 5oz.

The biggest fish was a 27cm rockling, caught by Dave Botterill.

It’s still looking like it will be a while yet before we get back to the fishing we had up to the new year.

Let’s hope that when the spring run of codling starts, it will be a good one this year!

If you have any fishing reports, you can contact me at popplewell1@btinternet.com The tides for the weekend are 1.45pm on Saturday and 2.17pm on Sunday.